“I haven’t yet, but I have a plan,” she told me as we made our way through the crowd that had gathered for the ribbon-cutting at the mine. It was hard to believe it was already the Fourth of July, and even more unbelievable that Cam had made enough progress for this soft opening. We still had a few hours to go, but locals and tourists alike had made their way up to the Rose Rowan already.
“What is this plan?” Cam asked, sneaking up behind us.
“Hi, Cam!” Rose’s smile was instant and bright.
“Hi, Rosie.” Cam picked her up in a hug before kissing me quickly.
“Rose apparently has to choose between two boys,” I told him as he took my hand in his.
“What? I thought boys had germs and stuff at your age.”
Rose flat-out rolled her eyes at him. “There they are.” She not-so-subtly pointed to two boys who stood near the punch table.
“Wait, this showdown is happening here?” Where was her mother when I needed her? I rose on my tiptoes to see if Charity stood out in the crowd, but it was too thick to find anyone who wasn’t as tall as Cam.
Speaking of tall, there was Alexander, having his picture taken over by the podium. Now I was the one rolling my eyes.
“It’s not a showdown. It will be easy, see?” She slipped her Rose Rowan backpack from her shoulder and pulled out two glittery unicorn pins. “I’ve been conducting an experiment, and now it’s time to test out my hypoth…” Her forehead puckered.
“Hypothesis,” I offered.
“Yep!” She grinned and put her pack back on.
“Do you want to explain?” I asked, noting that one of the boys was shorter with glasses and the classic underdog haircut, while the other could have modeled for Fourth Grade Weekly or whatever.
“Later,” she promised.
“Need some muscle?” Cam offered, eyeing the boys.
“I can take care of myself, but thank you!” she called over her shoulder as she walked toward the boys.
“I don’t know how I feel about this,” I muttered.
“Ditto,” he agreed, squeezing my hand.
We watched as Rose presented the boys with the pins.
“I wish we could hear what they’re saying.”
“If I’d known, I would have wired up a mic.” His eyes narrowed, and he leaned forward like he could wish himself into supersonic hearing.
The taller boy took the pin and forced a smile, then slipped it into the front pocket of his jeans. The shorter one grinned at Rose and then stuck it to the front of his Star Wars shirt.
Rose smiled at the shorter boy, said something that made him grin even wider, then ran back over to us.
My heart melted into a puddle of goo as I realized what she’d done and what the man I loved had inadvertently done for her.
“It worked!” she said, her eyes shining with the wisdom of childhood.
“What worked?” Cam asked, his gaze darting back to the boys.
“My experiment!” She raised her hands in victory.
“Well, I think it’s about to get interesting,” I said as I spied the taller boy coming over. He fumbled with the pin but eventually got the back through his polo and fastened it.
“Rose!” he called, waving enthusiastically. “Look!” He pointed to the pin.
She sighed and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Drake, but it’s too late.”
“And way too early,” Cam muttered, earning him a poke with my elbow.
“But I like it! I really do!” he proclaimed with big blue eyes.
“No you don’t.” She shook her head emphatically. “You just want me to think you like it. There’s a difference.”
“Burn,” Cam drawled.
“No one says that anymore,” Rose lectured him, but she did it with a smile.
“Fine,” Drake snapped, ripping the pin from his shirt and leaving a hole in the fabric. “Keep your stupid unicorn. I don’t want it anyway.” He thrust it at Rose, and when she didn’t take it back, Cam reached over and took it for her.
The boy looked up and up, and when he finally met Cam’s eyes, his widened. Then he ran.
“Thank you for proving my hypothesis!” Rose shouted after him.
“That’s the word! Good job!” I told her with a high five.
Cam had already fastened the pin above the Rose Rowan logo on the button-down shirt he wore. I had zero doubt the white fabric would be stained with dirt by the end of the first train run, but I loved that he had the sleeves rolled up, not caring what anyone thought of his tattoos.
“Camden, the newspaper is here all the way from Denver. They’re hoping to get an interview with you and Xander and maybe your dad?” Walt asked with more than a little hesitation. “It’s understandable if you want to say no or if you’d like to use his camera to violently bash your brother over the head.”
A smile ghosted Cam’s lips, and he sighed. “It’s okay, Walt. It’s good for the mine, and with the cost of at-home care, I’ll take all the free publicity I can get.”
“Don’t have too much fun,” I told him.
He kissed me as a reply. He was doing that more often, too—kissing me in public, ignoring what anyone thought about him or us. It wasn’t an act of rebellion like it would have been when he was younger. Now it was because he genuinely didn’t care what anyone thought and knew I didn’t, either.
We were happy, and that made all the difference.
“I should have brought one for you, too,” Rose mumbled.
“I don’t need one,” I assured her, spying Charity standing with her boyfriend. “You already know I don’t care what people think about me.”
Her eyes widened. “You get it.”
“Cam? The ice pack?” I asked.
“First, you have to answer a question.” She pinned me with her stare as people moved around us, heading for the buffet or the display of historical pictures.
“Okay?”
“Your unicorn pin. Who gave it to you? You know, the one you lost in the mine?” She tilted her head toward the Rose Rowan.
“Cam. He bought two at the Mother’s Day shop at school that year. One for me and one for his mom.” Lillian had been buried with hers.
She frowned. “I bet you really miss it.”
“The pin? Well, of course it would be nice to have it, but I made peace with losing it a long time ago.” Seeing how sad that seemed to make her, I pushed forward. “But you know, the mine is opening today! There’s always the chance that someone finds it. Who knows! I don’t remember where I was, but Cam has the 1880 tunnel ready for exploration, so any one of these thousand tourists might stumble onto it.”